Posts filed under ‘About Our Earth’
Spring 2022 in Essoyes
Spring has been capricious this year. It was here, bringing sunshine, warmer weather, beautiful wildflowers, and sunnier dispositions. Windows were being opened to let warm breezes inside. Then it snowed again! Which was not good for the young buds on the vines that are so important to life here–and to making the champagne that brings pleasure to people far and wide. The temperature hit a record low for April, and so our local vignerons were once again desperately trying to save their crop of grapes for this year. 😦
Fingers crossed that winter–beautiful as it is–is done for this year! We’re all very ready for spring.
This is an important month in France, as voters choose their next president. In France there is a two-round system for the presidential elections. The two candidates who get the most votes in the first round–which was yesterday–then face off in the final election, which will be held on April 24.
This year there were 12 candidates on the ballot for the first round. And this year–as in 2017–the final choice for French voters is between Emmanuel Macron, the current president, and Marine LePen.
Although the system of counting votes here is very simple and old-fashioned –paper ballots are counted by hand in each commune or arrondissement–it seems to work better than the system in the US. By the morning after the election, sometimes even earlier, the results are posted so that everyone can see how their community voted. I walked into the village this morning so I could see the results for Essoyes posted at the mairie, but since you can’t read the figures on my photograph of the posting (instead you see a rather lovely reflection of the part of the village that was behind the photographer 🙂 ) you can see how Essoyens voted here if you’re curious. And you can read this very interesting article if you want to learn about part of what is at stake in this election. (Only part: there are always, of course, many many issues of concern. But this one seems pretty significant to me. )
The news from Ukraine continues to be horrifying, and the worst part of it is the slowness of action on the part of political leaders to take more vigorous and decisive action to deal with the rapidly mounting humanitarian crisis, and in fact a genocide. Another one. How can this be happening again. How can it?
Many are doing what they can–France, for example, has already taken in some 45,000 Ukrainian refugees since this crisis began less than two months ago. But there will surely be more tragedy ahead unless Putin’s war machine is stopped, and the powers that be are not doing enough, and they’re not acting quickly enough. They’re not!
Fossil fuels are destroying the planet and now they are also fueling this terribly bloody war. When will we put an end to this madness?! How many more innocent people have to suffer from our inability–or unwillingness–to change our ways? It is really so awful. So maddening. So disheartening. So wrong!!
There have been some bright spots in the news. Last week doctors and scientists around the world made clear where they stand about the climate crisis in large numbers. Thank God for them, for their dedication and honesty, for their commitment to doing what they can to turn things around before it is too late. If the climate action movement could pick up steam as rapidly as the resurgence of union activity seems to be doing in the United States as of last week, maybe things could begin to get better.
I hope so, and SOON! because really? Things are not going so well on Planet Earth right now. 😦
There is much hope to be found among youth around the world: young people with great courage, imagination, determination and generosity are doing what they can to correct the mistakes and make up for the negligence of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. If you want to feel a little bit better about how things are going; if you wonder sometimes if there is any hope at all, you might want to read about some of these young people in this book. The young people featured in it are truly a source of great hope. But they need our help: they can’t solve these big problems alone.
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the U.S. and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and is currently working on her next book, A Long Way from Iowa: A Literary Memoir.
Book Review: Stone Soup for a Sustainable World: Life-Changing Stories of Young Heroes
There is a traditional folktale about a hungry traveler who goes from house to house in an impoverished village, looking for something to eat. No one can offer him anything, because none of them have enough food to feed themselves. The clever, and very enterprising, traveler persists: “Don’t you have anything you could give me?” he asks at each house. “A carrot? A part of an onion?” He explains that he has a magic stone that will form the basis of a fine, nourishing soup. All he needs is a few ingredients to add to the pot.
Eventually, using the meager contributions he gathers from each of the villagers, he does succeed in creating a fine, nourishing soup, and he is able to feed not only himself, but the villagers as well. It turns out that the “magic” stone was not really needed: the only “magic” that was needed was the villagers putting together their resources, whatever they could manage to spare, in order to come up with enough for everyone to eat.
That, and their belief in the power of collaborative action in the face of human need.
This is the folktale on which the 1998 book, Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes was based. That book featured 100 stories of “everyday heroes” from around the world who, through their individual contributions, were making the world a better place.
This week a follow-up book is being released. Stone Soup for a Sustainable World: Life-Changing Stories of Young Heroes has a similar format to the previous book, with two slight differences: this time the heroes being featured are all young people. And the focus of their efforts is on dealing with the climate emergency the people of this planet–that is, all of us–are facing.
Their stories are inspiring, not only because of the enthusiasm and optimism these young heroes possess, but also because of the astonishing creativity and energy they have brought to their efforts, and the successful innovations and projects they have already introduced into our world–which is in desperate need of just this kind of energy and just these kinds of projects. Their efforts offer promising solutions to a wide variety of the global problems we are facing, from deforestation to plastic waste in the oceans, from threatened biodiversity to endangered species.
A 13-year old boy in the United Arab Emirates has created an award-winning prototype for a robot that can clean up plastic waste in the ocean. A young entrepreneur in Barcelona has created a successful business making fashionable eyewear out of plastic waste retrieved from the ocean. A young woman in Mumbai started out by turning a public scrapyard in her neighborhood into an urban garden, and has gone on to become a researcher/educator about the importance of protecting native plants. These are just three of the encouraging, inspiring, and ultimately very hopeful stories included in these pages. There are 97 more!
Young climate activists in countries around the world, including the U.S., are also featured, and their energy and commitment to solving the massive problems they’ve been handed by older generations is matched only by their refusal to waste any time being angry about it, and just simply get down to work. That, in a way, is one of the most impressive things about them in the view of this baby-boomer, who feels pretty bad that we haven’t done a better job of caring for our earth, and that we’ve handed it to them in such sorry shape.
But there’s no time to dwell on that: the youth today are here. And they’re smart, and committed, and determined to turn things around. All they need from us is for us to stop wasting time, and help them–before it really is too late.
Marianne Larned is the powerful “force of nature” behind this collection of inspiring stories. After publishing Stone Soup for the World in 1998 she created the Stone Soup Leadership Institute, which has been nurturing youth leaders from around the world, and providing educators and others who work with youth with a variety of excellent educational materials, and youth leadership summits in order to provide both educators and youth with the tools, inspiration, and support they need to indeed make our world a better place.
If I haven’t convinced you that you should really buy this book, and read it, and tell all your friends to do so also, maybe you’ll listen to some of these young heroes tell you why you should. It’s two minutes well worth your time: trust me on this, and watch them here. I dare you not to be inspired!
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the U.S. and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and is currently working on her next book, a literary memoir entitled “A Long Way from Iowa.”
The Great March for #ClimateAction: From LA to DC
In March of 2014, in Los Angeles, a group of idealistic, realistic, determined, devoted, concerned citizens who wanted to DO SOMETHING about climate change set out on a 3,000 mile journey–by foot–with the goal of raising awareness, and inspiring climate action…
Continue Reading November 1, 2014 at 8:39 pm Leave a comment
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 